No. 2 Bulldogs Return to Regular Competition

Margot Benedict and Emily Billing. (Photo by Isabel Elliman '12)

Mar 29, 2012

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After last weekend's team racing diversion, the No. 2 Yale women's sailing team will return to fleet racing this weekend by sending a team to the 26th Brad Dellenbaugh Women's Interconference Regatta, hosted by Brown University. Last year the Bulldogs took second at the Dellenbaugh Regatta. This year they are looking to improve on that result and reassert themselves as one of the top teams in the nation.

Weather forecasts for Providence call for temperatures in the low 50s on both Saturday and Sunday, but significantly different wind conditions between the two days of racing. Saturday is supposed to see winds from the northeast at five to 10 miles per hour while Sunday looks like it will get a breezier southwesterly in the 10 to 25 miles-per-hour wind range.

Representing the Bulldogs in A division this weekend will be sophomore skipper Marlena Fauer along with sophomore crew Eugenia Custo Greig. Fauer and Custo Greig are coming off of their Ivy Championship win from last weekend at the Owen Trophy which was hosted by Yale. They were one of only a few all-female teams at the coed Ivy Championship Regatta.

Racing for the Bulldogs in B division will be freshman skipper Morgan Kiss along with senior crew Isabel Elliman. For Elliman, who generally competes with the coed team, this will be her first women's regatta of the spring season. However, her collegiate racing experience, paired with Kiss' young talent, should make for a powerful combination.

The Dellenbaugh Regatta will be sailed in Brown University's fleet of club 420s. In preparation, the Bulldogs have been practicing in their own fleet of club 420s on the waters of the Long Island Sound. Conditions at Brown's sailing venue can be very similar to those at Yale's. On windy, onshore-breeze days the shifts tend to be more persistent and the waves that arise allow racers to surf their boats downwind. On the other hand, both venues can also get shiftier, flatter-water days when the breeze blows from an offshore direction.

Forecasts say that the Bulldogs should be getting a fair share of windy and shifty conditions to practice in over the next couple of days. Wind speeds are predicted to exceed 20 miles per hour from the northwest.